charity's and fundraising
[Some of the women from the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS).]
Fundraising and charity work became very popular during WW1. For the women who couldn’t find a job to help out in the war turned to charity work. Many of the women started their own charity organisations. Various methods of fundraising were used to assist the men fighting overseas. For example door knock appeals and fetes are just some of the fundraising methods. During 1914 the Australian branch of the British Red Cross was founded at government house in Melbourne. It wasn’t long before Red Cross had branches in every state. This was due to the contribution from all the women trying to do their bit for the war. The middle class women who predominately staffed Red Cross compiled packages for the soldiers. The packages contained luxury items such as food, games, soap and toiletries. As the company got bigger they began to supply clothing and medical supplies for the soldiers. They also established homes for all the wounded soldiers to recover in. Red Cross also raised money to assist the soldier’s families. Two years later in 1916 two more well-known charity organisations were formed. The Australian Comforts Fund was one of them. The comforts Fund raised money to provide comfort boxes for the soldiers overseas. Knitted socks, cigarettes, preserved foods and pyjamas were the contents of these comfort boxes. Overall the women who worked/volunteered for the comfort fund knitted nearly 1.5 million pairs of socks during the war. This just shows how devoted the women were to helping out in the war. The Australian Women's Service Corps was the other organisation formed in 1916. This organisation was formed to make the government aware of the women who wanted to help out more towards the war. The main objective of the corps ' was to train women to be able to work in jobs that they had never done before. In doing this it made the men able to enlist. This idea which seemed good in theory was ignored by the male dominated government. More than 200 women’s voluntary groups were formed during the time of WW1.
Thank you to the following website for the photo above http://www.thewaryears.alicespringsrsl.com.au/women2.shtml
Thank you to the following website for the photo above http://www.thewaryears.alicespringsrsl.com.au/women2.shtml
Little nora does her bit
We began hearing a lot about 'the war effort' and people stopped saying the war would be over in six months, or even a year. Whenever I came home from school, the house was full of women clicking knitting needles and manipulating dark wool, and making huge quantities of socks, vests, mittens and mufflers, as well as sewing pyjamas and shirts. Mum ran Red Cross classes with first aid and bandage rolling... Mum, who was a leading light in the CWA (Country Women's Association) as well as the Red Cross, spent more and more of her time on the war effort...
Nora Pennington, the good little girl who had written the composition about Gallipoli, was the school's champion sock knitter. At lunchtime and recess she sat with her ankles neatly crossed and her boots buttoned, turning the heels of the socks very prettily. She eventually won the district record for the number of socks, mufflers, mittens and balaclava helmets knitted by anybody under the age of thirteen; her father made sure that the news reached the front page of his paper, with the heading 'LITTLE NORA DOES HER BIT'. The rest of us longed to grab her knitting, rip the stitches out and snarl the wool for her.
Thanks to the following site for this article:
http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww1/homefront/women.html?_sm_au_=iHVPM2rnRsf6JHRF
Nora Pennington, the good little girl who had written the composition about Gallipoli, was the school's champion sock knitter. At lunchtime and recess she sat with her ankles neatly crossed and her boots buttoned, turning the heels of the socks very prettily. She eventually won the district record for the number of socks, mufflers, mittens and balaclava helmets knitted by anybody under the age of thirteen; her father made sure that the news reached the front page of his paper, with the heading 'LITTLE NORA DOES HER BIT'. The rest of us longed to grab her knitting, rip the stitches out and snarl the wool for her.
Thanks to the following site for this article:
http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww1/homefront/women.html?_sm_au_=iHVPM2rnRsf6JHRF